president of the united states. >> in january 2009, kennedy makes an emotional return to capitol hill. he appears strong at the historic inauguration of president barack obama. but a seizure during the inaugural lunch causes concern. >> right now a part of me is with him. and i think that's true for all of us. this is a joyous time. but it's also sobering time. >> still, his cancer battle does not dampen his spirits. >> when the kennedy story is told 100 years from now, it will have to be told as each brother fell the next one took over. joe junior died in world war ii. then jack kennedy became the kennedy to take the banner of political life over for the family. when jack died, it was bobby. and when bobby died, it was teddy.

and after they were all dead, he remained on the scene for decades as a public figure, as a senator, and somebody who believed in the causes that they had believed in and tried to carry them forward. >> senator edward kennedy spent decades in congress fighting for liberal causes. his legacy, public service and his concern for america's least powerful. as he said so many years ago, the work goes on, the cause endures, and the dream will never die. that's all for this edition of "headliners and legend," i'm lester holt. thank you for watching.

the kennedy brothers, they stirred their rival's blood. richard nixon put it this way, when you beat a kennedy, you beat the best. the trouble was, nobody did following the death of senator edward kennedy, here is the hardball political story how these extraordinary brothers sought the american presidency. let the word go forth from this time -- >> he made this the best generation. >> let us offer new hope. in the 1950s, politics meant men in flannel suits, adlai stevenson, richard nixon. they were dull, stodgy and sexless. in 1966, someone new appeared on

the political radar. the democratic convention in chicago that summer, a young politician battled the old guard for the vice presidential nomination. in the process, catapulted himself on to the national stage. his name was jack kennedy. >> i want to take this opportunity first to express my appreciation. >> he was young, alive, great looking, and while he lost the nomination, he wowed the country. >> he tried to get it and he came very, very close. as it turned out, he did not get it, but he did become, overnight, a national figure. >> then there was this stunningly beautiful wife. for us, 1956 was jacqueline kennedy's debut. >> tell me, were you able to adjust to this? >> well, yes, because i've never known anything else since i've been married. >> no one could ever be counted a loser with her at his side. we also met his family. boy, did he have lots of brothers and sisters. and his fabulously wealthy

father. joseph kennedy sr. was our ambassador to great britain in the late 1930s. but by 1940, his political career was over. he had nailed himself as a defeatist, or worst, when he predicted that war with nazi germany would end democracy in britain and possibly in the u.s., so his dreams of the white house were now for his sons. >> once his own political future was undone, he could pour all his life energy into those boys. he wanted them to go places he, himself, could not have gone. >> first up was the handsome hard-charging oldest brother, joe jr. he took his first political steps in 1940 as a delegate for the democratic presidential convention. he was on his way. but then the war came. a war that claimed his life. when his b-24 bomber exploded in mid-air during a secret mission

to bomb german missile sites. >> there is no question joe jr was meant to be head of the family. had he lives, he was the one joe sr. thought he would go into pot particulars and carry that legacy onto the future. when joe jr died, that burden of carrying the family legacy fell on to jack. >> in 1946, 29-year-old jack ran for congress for massachusetts 11th district, cutting in front of local politicians waiting patiently for the seat to open. the year before he died, while beginning to dictate his memoirs, jack confessed to having been something of a carpetbagger. >> i was an outsider, really. i never lived very much in the district. my family roots from there, but i lived in new york 2e7b years. on top of that, i had gone to harvard, not a particularly popular institution at that time in the 11th congressional district. >> the kennedy tactics in 1946 would be used in succeeding campaigns. one was an astute use of public

relations, image building. joe sr. had been a hollywood mogul and knew how to promote. >> he basically was the one who took hollywood publicity techniques and applied them to politics. >> fortunately, joe sr. also had a good product to sell. lieutenant kennedy had rescued his crew when his pt boat was rammed by a japanese destroyer, a story joe sr. got reprinted in "reader's digest" then handed out 100,000 free copies to local voters. to win there was a willingness by father and son to do whatever was necessary. though raised a young aristocrat, jack found himself walking up triple-decker complexes to greet voters. the young upstart won. he was part of a new general vags of veterans taking power all over the country that year. it was clear congressman kennedy was a young man in a hurry. >> congressman kennedy, how do

you feel about your race to the senate up here? >> i think it's going very well. >> in 1952, he ran for senate against henry cabot lodge. his campaign manager was fellow irish catholic larry o'brien. >> my father was one generation away from bitter experiences. this presented an opportunity for the irish catholic community of massachusetts to step up to the next plateau. >> the kennedy campaign exploited the catholic voters' grudge against yankees like lodge. as they had in '46, the family mobilized. his sisters hosted teas, a chance for aspiring irish and italian ladies to share the war with the celebrated kennedys. kennedy ended up defeating lodge. he was now a u.s. senator. but it was clear that jack had a bigger prize in mind. >> i don't think he had any natural interest in the senate.

i think he felt if this was the game, he wanted to be captain. >> kennedy now had his eye on the white house. he recruited the best and the brightest, speech writer ted sorenson, pollster lou harris, advanceman kenny o'donnell and campaign managers larry o'brien and younger brother bobby. >> i believe there is a real trend on now for senator kennedy and the democratic party. we are extremely encouraged. >> to make sure his brother's presidential campaign succeeded, bobby ran interference, toughness was in the kennedy's dna. an immigrants' toughness and bobby was the least assilitaletd of them all. >> he did the hard stuff, telling people to go away. >> with his impressive campaign team in place, jack was ready for the toughest test yet, 1960. hey mom i need some minutes.

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join us to register this week to vote, to stand for progress, to move, to move, to go forward until the united states achieves that great goal of practicing what it preaches. >> for 1960, jack's campaign team developed a new playbook, one that has become familiar in every presidential campaign since. use the power of television, and most importantly, take the candidate's case directly to primary voters, unheard of at the time, and use their toughness, political savvy and money to win it all. it was a campaign like no other. >> i hope we're going to do well. i guess we'll know better by the time the votes are counted. >> they actually made a targeted list based on cold-blooded

analysis of what states might be important and what states could win it, so he traveled around the country to those states for almost a year. he very rarely, if ever, ran into anybody from any of the competing campaigns. >> most other top democratic candidates, including senate majority leader lyndon johnson didn't campaign in the primaries. they would stubbornly do it the old fashioned way, working the smoke-filled rooms of the convention hall itself. >> i would accept a second spot on the kennedy tiblgt? i think the question could have better been put if kennedy would accept a second spot on the johnson ticket. >> he didn't think kennedy had any chance of president because he was a young upstart, not part of the inner circle or club in the senate. >> kennedy, in a popular liberal from minnesota, senator hubert humphrey were left alone to contest the early primaries. >> thank you, ladies and gentlemen, from the great city

of charleston, west virginia. >> the key battleground was west virginia, a heavily protestant state where kennedy's religion would be put to the test. compared to the cool jack, humphrey looked and sounded like a typical politician. >> this is my wife. how do you do? mrs. halston, glad to see you. >> as planned, kennedy's team played up their man's youth and war records, contrasting lieutenant kennedy's hero status with humphrey's failure to serve in world war ii, a fact that still amuses kennedy friend ben bradley who served on a destroyer in the pacific. >> humphrey wasn't in world war ii. he wasn't, you know, what was he a hospital mate or something like that? >> you guys are unbelievable. this is what i'm talking about. you guys kept score on who was in the front. >> we knew people's war records. we sure did. >> remember, senator john f. kennedy can be our next

president. >> kennedy trailed humphrey by 20%. so his campaign turned up the heat, buying tv time to address head-on when his pollsters showed growing concerns about kennedy's catholic religions. >> i don't happen to be one of those serious issues is where i go to church on sundays. >> the strategy worked. senator kennedy crushed humphrey with 60% of the vote. more went into this victory than an appeal to patriotism and fair play. it was common knowledge in west virginia, county politicians could be swayed by cash. kennedy had it, lots of it, and used it. >> i offer my congratulations to my friend and senate colleague jack kennedy. >> humphrey dropped out. the newest victim of the kennedy juggernaut. at the democratic convention in july, jack kennedy, a few votes shy of the nomination, fought off a growing challenge from lyndon johnson.

johnson's people revealed that kennedy suffered from addison's disease, which if the kennedy people had not succeeded in denying it would have killed jack's chances. bobby kennedy couldn't contain his anger. >> there were a number of instances over the 1960 convention where he approached the johnson people, waved his finger in someone place and said, you johnson people are going to get yours. >> i come to you today full of admiration for senator johnson. >> the yours johnson people ended up getting was to be jack's pick for vice president. kennedy had done his political calculus. he needed the texas electoral votes and needed the local man on the ticket to get them. with the hard-fought nomination in hand, the kennedy campaign fixed its sights on beating richard nixon. contrasting jack's vitality and promise to get the country moving again to the candidate tied to the status quo of the 1950s. >> the republican nominee, of

course, is a young man, but his approach is as old as mckinley. >> nixon was thrown at first by the coldness and efficiency of the kennedys' frontal assault. he's known and liked jack since they came to the house together in 1947. jack's father donated money to nixon's senate campaign. jack hand-delivered the check to nixon's office and told newspaper columnist charles bartlett, a close friend, he would vote for nixon for president if he, jack, didn't get the nomination. but jack kennedy was not one to let political fellowship affect his game. >> good evening. the television -- >> kennedy's team new the knew medium of television was the way to persuade voters. his sun tan radiant image was worth a thousand words and hundreds of thousands of votes. to exploit his edge on the tube, they brought in bill wilson, a seasoned tv producer. in the first presidential debate, wilson made sure viewers saw lots of shots of the

ashen-faced nixon, who had famously refused to wear make-up. >> i wanted more reaction shots. >> you've got kennedy down, but you need six more on nixon. it was like night and day between before the debate and after the debate. the crowd was enormous. it was loud. it was noisy. >>. ♪ everyone is voting for jack because he's got what all the rest lack ♪ >> with a theme song by frank sinatra, the kennedy campaign was far more glamorous than nixon's. it put lou harris' scientific polls to work in a way never done before. team kennedy focused like a laser on winning bik states and their electoral votes, while nixon campaigned in all 50 states. >> we surveyed 38 states for kennedy, and wrote off about half the states. he had the guts to write off

whole states. >> in the end, just 100,000 votes separated kennedy and nixon out of some 70 million counted, .1%. >> at 7:19 a.m. eastern time, senator kennedy was elected president of the united states. >> kennedy had an overwhelming majority in the electoral college. >> kennedy has won 296. that alone is enough. >> in those big states, many of the voters were catholic. kennedy had turned an historic negative into an electoral positive. >> kennedy played the catholic issue extremely well. making sure that he got all the catholic votes and had a minimum reverse effect among non-catholic voters. >> my wife and i prepare for a new administration and a new baby. thank you.

>> the kennedys had played politics perfectly and their tough tactics continue as jack picks his cabinet. listening to his father's advice that he needed to keep bobby close at hand. >> i am pleased to accept the position of the attorney generalship of the united states. >> with jack now in the white house and brother bobby as justice, the stage was set for the era of kennedys. he ran off with his secretary! she's 23 years old! - oh, come on. - enough! you get half and you get half. ( chirp ) team three, boathouse? ( chirp ) oh yeah-- his and hers. - ( crowd gasping ) - ( chirp ) van gogh? ( chirp ) even steven. - ( chirp ) mansion - ( chirp ) good to go. ( grunts ) timber! ( chirp ) boss? what do we do with the shih-tzu? - ( crowd gasps ) - ( chirp ) joint custody. - phew! - announcer: get work done now. communicate in less than a second with nextel direct connect. only on the now network. deaf, hard of hearing and people with speech disabilities access www.sprintrelay.com. maybe one of the most important...

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just as jack had been a different type of politician, the kennedy white house was unlike anything americans had ever seen. suddenly, we had a first family that was beautiful, stylish, with just the right touch of aristocracy. >> he took the best qualities of the rich, wasp, old guard and infused it with the energy and vitality of rising immigrants. >> just like jack's hero james bond, we never saw jfk sweat, a

political 007, president kennedy was smooth, savoring the accident. >> what was kennedy like? >> i think he was cool. >> he was dispassionate, decatched, cool. >> jesus, he was cool. >> what the country learned only later how well this suave exterior hid the secret life. his affairs that could ruin everything. his edison's disease that could have killed him in '47 and a back operation that required him to take steroids and reliance on energy-boost i energy-boosting amphetamines, that could have ruined his judgment. >> he looked like a god, but as bobby would say, a mosquito bites my brother, a mosquito dice. >> america knowing none of this had bigger worries. as the country faced numerous challenges.

for the bay of pigs, the berlin wall. the toughest came in october 1962, when u.s. spy planes photographed soviet nuclear missile bases in cuba, just 90 miles away. >> we will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the course of worldwide nuclear war in which even the fruits of victory would be ashenen in our mouth. >> jack's key advisor during the 13 days of the cuban crisis was his old campaign manager. together, the kennedy brothers came up with a creative solution. the u.s. put a naval quarantine in place, while secretly agreeing to pull obsolete u.s. missiles out of turkey. in exchange, the soviets removed their missiles from cuba. the crisis was averted, it was the kennedys' finest hour. >> what did your dad say after? >> he said we avoided a nuclear

holocaust, the end of the world. >> back home, another issue was reaching the boiling point. civil rights. kennedy knew that every step he took could hurt him in the upcoming 1964 election. >> he didn't want to move too fast. he didn't want to antagonize southern white democrats, so we had to stay with him. we had to continue to encourage him. he wanted to be able to say to southern democrats that these people are pushing me, they are putting pressure on me. >> if the president would sign an executive order to say segregation is unconstitutional on the basis of the 14th amendment, this would do a great deal to lead us out of this dark night of violence and prejudice which we still face in so many areas. >> in the spring of '63 in

alabama, fire hoses and police dogs were used to brutally disperse nonviolent protestors. >> kendrellized it was becoming a moral issue. as president of the united states, head to respond. >> spurred to action and pushed by bobby, kennedy delivered one of his most powerful addresses. >> we are confronted primarily with a moral issue. it is as old as the scriptures and is as clear as the american constitution. the heart of the question is, whether all americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities. whether we are going to treat our fellow americans as we want to be treated. >> by the fall of 1963, kennedy had introduced a strong civil rights bill to congress. his first thousand days had seen

many successes, the peace corps, the moon program, negotiating a nuclear test ban treaty, and a growing economy. among the failures, the increasingly troubled american commitment in vietnam. in late november, president kennedy and jackie flew to texas to do some political damage control for his approaching re-election campaign. on the 22nd, they landed in dallas. >> good evening. the essential facts are these. president kennedy was murdered in dallas, texas. he was shot by a sniper hiding in a building near his parade route. >> a wave of sadness and horror swept the nation while the kennedy family struggled to comprehend their loss. even in her grief, the president's widow began to

roamantize jack's legacy. she termed the word "camelot." >> jackie kennedy knew how to play, not just the press, but how to play the myth. >> once jackie labeled camelot, what it did was remind later generations of the fact there was a moment when there was this young president. there was a moment when people believed that they could change the world. >> our problems are man-made, therefore, they can be solved by man. >> the celebration of jack's legacy elevated and enshrined the kennedy brothers. it would become the foundation for not one, but two, attempted restorations. now was the next brother's turn to carry the kennedy torch, bobby. the tough, behind-the-scenes enforcer had to step forward to the spotlight. can unlock nature's power?

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here what's happening. family, friends and political colleagues on both sides of the

aisle gathered in boston tonight to remember the late senator ted kennedy. private service included music, even funny tales and calls to consider his life-long work including health coverage for all americans. space launch of "discovery" is set to go at 11:59. let's go back to "headliners and legends." i just have an eerie feeling as you see the effects of one president being moved out and the effects of the new president, president johnson coming in. >> those who knew bobby say after his brother's death, he seemed in a trance. even if he brooded, he began to actively position himself as jack's rightful heir. in 1964, after lyndon johnson

denied him the chance to be his vice president, bobby resigned as attorney general and ran for the senate from new york. he hadn't lived in the state since he was a boy, but the kennedys were never ones to play by the rule book or wait their turn. >> no one is committed to participating in public life can sit on the sidelines with so much at stake. >> yet, facing taunts he was a carpetbagger and haunted by the suspicion that the cheers were not for him, but for his lost brother, bobby had trouble finding his political footing. >> the largest minority of hecklers i ever had. >> i don't know. >> he didn't want to trade on his brother's name. on the other hand, he didn't quite know what to say on behalf of himself. >> kennedy ended up defeating the popular incumbent senator

ken keating riding on lyndon johnson's long presidential coattails. even as the new senator joined his younger brother ted on the hill, he was poised for higher office and everyone knew it. >> the feeling of most of those who watched him was that his presidential years were almost inevitable. there was always that feeling among the press and among his colleagues that one day they were going to have to deal with him on quite a different level. >> robert kennedy wasn't a cool politician like his older brother jack. he was emotional, intense, full of passion. >> the inadequacy of human compassion, the defectiveness of our systemability with the sufferings of our fellow, they mark the limit of our ability to use knowledge for the well-being of our fellow human beings throughout the world. >> as the vietnam war's death

toll rose and protestors took to the streets, bobby found his voice. >> you do nothing sitting down with the north vietnamese. >> even though he wanted to reclaim the white house, bobby wasn't ready to take on the president who was expanding the war, a war his brother had backed. >> he was quite resolute he wasn't going to run. it became clear we couldn't go through another four years of the johnson presidency. >> part of him said you don't take on something unless you can win. part of him said you have to do what's right. >> while bobby anguished, another anti-war candidate stepped up, minnesota senator eugene mccarthy. in march 1968, mccarthy, a virtual unknown, proved johnson's clear vulnerability, losing the new hampshire primary to the president by a handful of votes. a few days later, bobby was in,

announcing in the same senate chamber his brother had. >> i do not run for the presidency merely to oppose any man, but to propose new policies. >> many people saw bobby's announcement as naked political calculation. >> you opportunist. you let mccarthy pave the way and followed in his wake, even if it was ill-timed, an inopportune time to do it, but he did it. so he was off and running. >> robert kennedy's passionate 1968 campaign had little in common with the well-oiled kennedy campaign machine that made jack president eight years earlier. >> the bobby kennedy campaign, what was different about that from what you remember and knew about the jack kennedy campaign? >> well, it was a lot less organized. as you know, my father was very

ambivalent whether to run. it was the spirit that got the organization. >> are you going to vote for this man who sings like this? >> there was this enormous surge everywhere he went of youthful enthusiasm. it was extraordinary. grabbing him, mauling him and snatching his cuff links, and kids on tricycles and bikes. >> the kennedy campaign had the floor fall out from under him. >> i shall not seek, and i will not accept the nomination of my party another term as your president. >> bobby had been running against lyndon johnson and his war policies.

now for a brief time, he was at sea. that changed on april 4th. >> i have some very sad news for all of you. martin luther king was shot and was killed tonight. >> from that night in indianapolis, his campaign had a new direction. >> what we need in the united states is not violence and lawlessness, but is love and wisdom and compassion toward one another. and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country. >> he wasn't just running against a president or a war, but trying to heal a country's racial and economic wounds, as well. bobby went on to win in indiana, and then in nebraska. but he lost the oregon primary to mccarthy, a first for a kennedy in presidential

politics. to have any chance, bobby needed to best mccarthy in california. on june 4, 1968, he did just that. and won in south dakota, too. >> we want bobby. >> for a brief moment, bobby was atop a wave of excitement that might, just might have secured him the nomination. >> my thanks to all of you, and now it's on to chicago and let's win there. >> there is a doctor? >> senator robert francis kennedy died at 1:44 a.m. today, june 6th, 1968. he was 42 years old. >> i believe that robert kennedy would have won.

i think he could have succeeded richard nixon. think about it, no nixon? war ends. no watergate. what would this country have been like over the ensuing 40 years? >> present at the hospital, the youngest kennedy brother, ted. >> i saw him briefly. his face just contorted with grief. i've never seen a man so torn as he was that night, for all kinds of reasons. >> my brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life. to be remembered simply as a good and decent man who saw wrong and tried to right it. saw suffering and tried to heal it. saw war and tried to stop it. >> it was that eulogy that turned bobby kennedy into the saintly liberal figure we associate with bobby kennedy.

so all along it was ted who was investing the kennedy name with sort of concrete values. you know, civil rights, anti-war, health care, education. and that is a key to their endurance, that people consider the kennedys to be a fixed brand name. >> now, there was only one brother left.

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save more with esurance's "switch & save (tm) discount"! it also pays to shop online. you get esurance's "fast 5 (tm) discount" just for getting an instant online quote. - thanks, professor. - don't forget the good student discount. and there's even more discounts! it's no "secret" that you can save hundreds with esurance. make it your "mission" to click or call esurance today. of the four kennedy brothers, tend the youngest was the most connected to the others. in 1946, the family gathered in hyannis port to celebrate jack's

49th birthday. he raised his glass and said, i would like to drink a toast to the brother who isn't here. he stunned the room into silence. >> i think the three of them were not only a kind of band of brothers all their own in mythology, but in reality. >> in 1960, ted was given a key role in jack's campaign. overseeing the western states. >> in the state of oregon, do give jack an enthusiasm and overwhelming endorsement. >> when jack's senate seat came open in 1962, his father joe made the call declaring ted, 30 years old would be the candidate. >> jack and bobby did not want ted to run for the senate. they thought he was too young. >> joe said, no, it's his turn now. he helped you, you help him. >> at the state democratic convention, edward j. mccormick,

38-year-old nephew of house speaker mccormick seeks the role of senator. >> ted kennedy swung into action, dusting off jack's slogan from 1962, he can do more foremassachusetts. he won. prior to his triumph, joe senior suffered a debilitating stroke. his fourth son was now on his way. unlike his brothers, ted found a home in the senate. >> i think teddy kennedy was very happy being a senator. he just seemed more comfortable there within two days than either of the brothers may have felt being there for several years. >> then on the night of july 18, 1969, with kennedy poised to perhaps challenge nixon in 1972, he drove off a bridge on an island near martha's vineyard. the passenger with him, mayor ji

jo kepechen was killed. kennedy said he was driving her to catch a ferry to the vineyard when the accident occurred. >> there is no truth, no truth whatever to the widely-circulated suspicions of immoral conduct levelled at my behavior and hers dotting that evening. >> there were many reasons to believe they weren't heading to the ferry. first of all, she, mary jo left her purse and motel key back at the cottage. they didn't head to the ferry. they headed in a different direction over a dirt road heading out to the beat and the ferry stopped running more than a half hour before they left the party. >> it seemed that ted kennedy's political career and any hope of the presidency was over. in 1970, just 16 months later, the people of massachusetts overwhelmingly re-elected him to the senate. in a may 1971 poll, he led all democrats as a challenger to president nixon's re-election.

a kennedy restoration still seemed possible. next one was not anxious for a rematch, as becomes clear in the watergate tapes. >> teddy? who knows the nexts. >> did he do anything? >> no, no. he's very clean. >> be careful now. >> nixon got a break. kennedy didn't run in 1962. >> the prime reasons for not running are because of responsibilities to my family. >> for ted, being a kennedy brother was a heavy burden. >> senator, there's obviously a great price that one has to pay these days for political life. is the price worth the pain? >> well, i suppose it is. >> i jimmy carter do solemnly swear. >> with ted sitting out again in

1976, jimmy carter and the democrats retook the white house, but senator kennedy had little affection for carter, and vice versa. >> president carter probably regarded teddy kennedy as this constant, daily, hourly challenge, and for the kennedys, i thought they regarded carter assort of a bumkin. >> in 1979 with carter's popularity at a record low, kennedy decided to revive the kennedy party and do what bobby did, run against a sitting democratic president. >> today i formally announce that i'm a candidate for president of the united states. >> there did seem to be this family legacy to be satisfied to be the president, and more than that, he obviously knew from watching his brothers that the presidency had a power that no matter how big a senator you could be, you could still do more for the things you cared about if you were president.

>> he did it in some degree of discomfort because he's taking on a president of his own party. he also, i think, had personal reservations about whether, you know, his personal skills fit well with the presidency. >> that became clear after kennedy agreed to a high-profile television interview with cbs' roger mudd, taped prior to announcing his candidacy. >> why do you want to be president? >> well, i'm -- were i to make the, the announcement to run, the reasons i would run is because i have a great belief in this country. >> unfortunately ted's campaign turned out much like his interview, ill-prepared, unfocussed, un-kennedy. of the 34 primaries, carter won 24, kennedy just 10. >> it wasn't a very well-run

campaign. and it never got traction. i think the main reason was that that he probably had not felt it in his skin that this was his destiny. >> at the convention, ted gave more of an acceptance speech that what it was supposed to be, an endorsement of carter. >> for me a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. for all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endorsed, the hope still lives, and the dreams shall never die. >> they got to see the ted kennedy they should have gotten to see earlier in that campaign. >> reporter: by conventions end, the democrats president carter, bob shrum said be a good soldier and a team player. >> i said you are going to raise

his hand, aren't you? he said yes, and it never happened. >> and then some people in the crowd shouted we want ted, we want ted. this was slightly awkward. >> and finally, i guess, at the very end, there was some sort of brief hand touch, but it was on full view of the nation. this absolute physical contempt for the senator toward the president. >> reporter: the kennedy campaign machine, which for decades had intimidated and destroyed political foes from lodge to humphrey to johnson to nixon could now only wound. for those savoring a kennedy restoration, the dream had been again been deferred. ah-h-h-h-h. (machine switching off) gain. sniff, sniff, hooray.

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in the decades following his

1980 presidential bid, ted kennedy finally let go of his dream of reclaiming the white house. his true calling was the u.s. senate, fighting for health care, especially. >> this administration missed the vote so to speak in understanding where we're going. >> i think senator kennedy has a very, very deep feeling that he's carrying on a legacy that really matters. he's gone beyond carrying it on, he's expanded it, and probably passed more significant legislation than many presidents have. >> reporter: in 1957, jack kennedy was chosen to select the greatest senators in history, of course he could only look backwards, looking forward, he could've included his youngest brother. >> he's willing to be bipartisan. i think he goes down in history as one of the all time great liberal senators, no question about it. >> in january 2008, ted kennedy once more responded to the siren call of the white house.

not for himself, but to support a presidential candidate who personified the kennedy vision, that legacy, that dream, that would never die. >> i know what america can achieve. i've seen it, i've lived it, and with barack obama, we can do it again. >> despite being challenged by a serious illness, he refused to kit, going to denver to speak to the convention. >> this november, the torch will be passed again to a new generation of americans so with barack obama and for you and for me, our country will be committed to his cause. the work begins anew.

the hope rises again, and the dream lives on. >> my father said 40 years ago, there will be an afric african-american president. and i think there was a sense that what barack obama was doing was continuing the sense of engagement, excitement. >> in truth, the next generation of the kennedys is a guy named obama. >> yes, we can. >> thank you. god bless you, and may god bless the united states of america. >> for 50 years now, the story of the kennedy brothers' dogged pursuit of the presidency has been without parallel. what caught us up in jack and roused us with bobby and lured us with ted was